Resources for Community-Engaged Research

Defining Community-Engaged Research

There is a spectrum of Community-based Research conducted at the University of Minnesota. According to the University of Minnesota’s Performance of Community-based Research Guidance Statement, “When conducting or participating in these research activities, the university desires to engage the community, strengthen community linkages, and respect community values.”

One of the approaches, Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR), requires the unification of the academic researcher and the community. Within this partnership, the community members serve as active and equal participants throughout the entirety of a given project.

Together the partners create project ideas and procedures that respond to a need or question of a specific community. The motivation for each project is that the findings will be used to take actions towards solving the addressed community problem.

For such a partnership to exist, each side must uphold a level mutual trust, respect, collaboration and commitment to each other throughout the project. An awareness of individual and communal beliefs, values, knowledge and customs is crucial. Accordingly, partners will communicate openly about demographic issues as well as community and personal concerns to agree upon a mission and a method. As a unified team, the partners will share responsibilities to reach their goals.

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PHDR Resources for Community-Engaged Research

PHDR Resources Co-developed with SoLaHmo

External Resources for Community-Engaged Research

Resources for Community-Engagement in Academic Health Centers

Partners in Research

Community and Faculty Training Curricula to Prepare Partners for Community-based Participatory Research Collaborations

These training materials consist of two separate but parallel comprehensive curricula designed to prepare community members from immigrant and refugee communities and academic faculty to collaborate on community-based participatory research (CBPR) projects. The training is oriented towards research and CBPR naïve community members and CBPR naïve researchers who are developing new partnerships.

Curriculum for Community Scholars

The CBPR curriculum for the community scholars includes six sessions (3 hours each). Topics are:

  1. Introduction to CBPR,
  2. Overview of research,
  3. Quantitative/qualitative design and analysis,
  4. Research ethics from community perspective,
  5. Key challenges to CBPR partnerships,
  6. Partnering skills to address key challenges (empowerment approach) including communication strategies and shared decision making.  

Curriculum for Faculty

The faculty curriculum consists of 2 sessions (3 hours each). Topics are: 

  1. Introduction to CBPR,
  2. Key challenges to CBPR partnerships,
  3. Partnering skills to address key challenges,
  4. Ethics in CBPR,
  5. IRB applications,
  6. Financials in CBPR. 

Materials

Materials include PowerPoint slides, training manuals, exercises, and handouts for each audience. The development of these materials was funded by NIH grant number R03DA0266632-01.

These materials have been published through CES4Health:

Community Member Training Materials

Academic Faculty Training Materials

Suggested Citation

  • Allen ML, Culhane-Pera K, Call KT, Pergament S. (2010) Partners in Research: Curricula to Prepare Community and Faculty for CBPR Partnerships. CES4Health.info, 2011.
    PubMed.

More Information and Contact

"When conducting or participating in these research activities, the university desires to engage the community, strengthen community linkages, and respect community values."